- Title
- Shifts in the incidence of shark bites and efficacy of beach-focussed mitigation in Australia
- Creator
- Huveneers, Charlie; Blount, Craig; Bradshaw, Corey J. A.; Butcher, Paul A.; Lincoln Smith, Marcus P.; Macbeth, William G.; McPhee, Daryl P.; Moltschaniwskyj, Natalie; Peddemors, Victor M.; Green, Marcel
- Relation
- Marine Pollution Bulletin Vol. 198, Issue January 2024, no. 115855
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115855
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Shark-human interactions are some of the most pervasive human-wildlife conflicts, and their frequencies are increasing globally. New South Wales (Australia) was the first to implement a broad-scale program of shark-bite mitigation in 1937 using shark nets, which expanded in the late 2010s to include non-lethal measures. Using 196 unprovoked shark-human interactions recorded in New South Wales since 1900, we show that bites shifted from being predominantly on swimmers to 79 % on surfers by the 1980s and increased 2–4-fold. We could not detect differences in the interaction rate at netted versus non-netted beaches since the 2000s, partly because of low incidence and high variance. Although shark-human interactions continued to occur at beaches with tagged-shark listening stations, there were no interactions while SMART drumlines and/or drones were deployed. Our effect-size analyses show that a small increase in the difference between mitigated and non-mitigated beaches could indicate reductions in shark-human interactions. Area-based protection alone is insufficient to reduce shark-human interactions, so we propose a new, globally transferable approach to minimise risk of shark bite more effectively.
- Subject
- shark attack; shark deterrent; shark mitigation; beach meshing; drumline; drone
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1496706
- Identifier
- uon:54208
- Identifier
- ISSN:0025-326X
- Rights
- x
- Language
- eng
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